The present invention relates to apparatus for treating tobacco products and, more particularly, to apparatus for concurrently perforating the sidewalls of and moistening elongate cylindrical tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars.
It has long been recognized that the deleterious effects of smoking may be mitigated to some degree, and that smokers may be aided in their efforts to break the smoking habit, by reducing the quantities of undesirable gases and particulate matter in the smoke they inhale. This can be done by aerating the smoke drawn from cigarettes and cigars via transverse puncture ducts made in the sidewalls thereof, and by using moisteners to moisten such tobacco products, particularly the filter tips thereof when so equipped, to facilitate the removal of harmful constituents from the aerated tobacco smoke by the moistened filter and/or by the moistened tobacco. It is generally not practical either to pre-puncture or to pre-moisten tobacco products prior to their distribution and sale since, in the case of pre-puncturing, not all smokers are desirous of having their smoke aerated, and separate manufacturing, packaging and distributing facilities would have to be set up for the pre-punctured tobacco products. Similarly in the case of pre-moisturizing, the moisture would tend to evaporate and dry out between the time that it was applied to the tobacco product and the time that the tobacco product was consumed by the smoker. Accordingly, various devices have been proposed heretofore for use by the individual smoker in puncturing sidewalls of tobacco products or in moisturizing either the entire tobacco product or the filter tip thereof alone.
With respect to puncturing the sidewalls of tobacco products, Landuydt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,263,923, discloses a perforator for cigarettes. The perforator includes a support-base having a projection extending from one of its sides. The projection has a notch adapted to freely receive a cigarette adjacent to the support-base. A pin projects from the support-base on the same side as the projection, facing the notch for insertion into a cigarette positioned in the notch. The perforator includes means thereon by which it attaches to the end of a cigarette lighter opposite from that end thereof used to light cigarettes. Thompson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,770, also discloses a perforator for smoking articles such as cigarettes, cigars and the like. The perforator includes a body having a cylindrical aperture in the lower portion thereof and an overfitting cap reciprocally mounted over the upper portion of the body. The reciprocal cap carries a plunger therewith that is provided with pins which extend through the aperture in the body when the cap is depressed, transversely puncturing any smoking article located therein. A spring member position between the plunger and the body biases the cap, plunger and pins to remove the pins from the body aperture when the cap is released.
With respect to moisturizing tobacco products, Burbig, U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,632, discloses a moisturizer in the form of a generally cylindrical squeeze bottle. The bottle is provided with a cylindrical receptacle for receiving the filter end of a cigarette and holding the cigarette so that the cigarette is generally coaxial with the container. A needle mounted within the cylindrical receptacle impales the cigarette filter so that fluid dispensed from within the bottle, as by squeezing, will be forced into the filter and moisturize the same. Kotuby et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,995, discloses a rather complex device including an elongate cylindrical cigarette receiving receptacle, an elongate hollow needle disposed within that receptacle and an external housing surrounding the receptacle. The external housing has various components adapted to hold a small, generally cylindrical aerosol dispensing unit having a hollow actuating stem so that the axis of the dispensing unit extends generally parallel to the axis of the cigarette receiving receptacle. Other components are provided for connecting the hollow stem of the aerosol dispenser with the interior of the needle. In use, a cigarette is impaled on the needle and the aerosol dispenser is actuated by moving the aerosol dispenser relative to the external housing. Fluid from the dispenser flows through the hollow stem of the dispenser and through the needle into the cigarette.
The foregoing devices, and other devices developed heretofore for puncturing or moistening tobacco articles, have not been widely accepted in the market place because they have not been particularly convenient to carry and/or use and because separate puncturing and moisturizing devices have been needed to accomplish both tasks. Typically these devices have been ill suited to one-handed operation, and have not been used in situations where one hand is required for other activities, as, for example, while driving an automobile or the like. Moreover, any of such devices proposed heretofore have been rather bulky and cumbersome and relatively expensive to manufacture and thus unsuitable for sale as disposable items.
In addition to the foregoing prior art examples of puncturing and moisturizing devices, an improved moistening device is shown and described in the co-pending application of George E. Brackett, Ser. No. 940,063, filed Dec. 10, 1986, which application is assigned to the assignee of the present application. The disclosure of the aforesaid co-pending application is incorporated by reference into the present application. In said co-pending application the moistening device utilizes a small, stem-actuated dispenser, such as a pressure-charged aerosol type dispenser or a pump type dispenser small enough to be held in the palm of a normal human hand. The moistening device also includes a push button mounted on the stem, the push button having a button body defining a tobacco-product-receiving bore extending in a bore direction, the bore having an open end and being adapted to receive the end of a tobacco product so that such product also extends in the bore direction. The bore communicates with the hollow stem. When the end of a tobacco product is engaged in the bore, the axis of such product extends substantially in the bore direction, transverse to the stem direction and to the axis of the container, facilitating holding the device and the engaged tobacco product in one hand, and facilitating actuation of the device by pushing on the button with the thumb of the same hand. Upon actuation, a liquid discharged from the container enters the bore and moistens the end of the tobacco product.
Although the aforesaid co-pending application represents a significant step forward insofar as moisturizing devices for tobacco products are concerned in that it provides for a relatively inexpensive, disposable moistening device suited to one-handed operation, it does not include provision therein for puncturing the sidewalls of the tobacco products to facilitate aerating the smoke inhaled by the smokers.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved device for treating tobacco products in order to modify the combustion products of the tobacco and render the same more acceptable to the smoker.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a device for both perforating and moistening tobacco products for reducing the quantities of undesirable gasses and particulate matter in the combustion products thereof.
An additional object of this invention to provide a hand-held, disposable device for use by a consumer in perforating and moistening tobacco products just prior to their consumption.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds.